Multiplayer

Retro Community Day is upon us as we play by our own rules. By that I mean Red Hot Sonic’s rules. We’re playing Sonic Bash with the community. Join your ol’ pal Bart, NeoHazard and special guest Red Hot Sonic, Overlord and others as we see who fights Robotnik best.

SEGA Channel Retro is the SEGA themed variety channel covering anything and everything related to Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA and the community that supports it. We stream SEGA games, games on SEGA consoles, hacks, mods and more!

We certainly haven’t done one of these in a long while. Let’s all gather back together to play Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on PC/Steam this Saturday at 5PM Central. Send your friend request on Steam to my (Bartman3010) account, which I conveniently named SEGA Channel Retro and watch for an invite to come play with us! We’ll be livestreaming the event to record my great feats. Or is that me getting horribly beaten? In any case, send in your requests early and come see us this weekend!

Its the final minutes until the big 25h anniversary party for our good buddy, Sonic, but wait! Those aren’t rings falling from the sky, its a bunch of weights and a myriad of bombs which means its the last few rounds of Saturn Bomberman before we share our verdict on the game. In the last part of the episode, the group talks about the sudden death mode, discovers a connection with Bomberman and wrestling and share our strategies of playing the game. Also how did people play the game in the mid to late nineties? The round table discussion features my friends Chance, Krys, Randy and Chelsea.

Did you play Saturn Bomberman back in the day? How did you set up the game to play with friends? Do you think other Bomberman games do the job better? Be sure to sound off in the comments!

Wondering what to look for in a SEGA Saturn game now that Saturn game encryption has finally been cracked? Why not one of the biggest multiplayer experiences on the console? Multiplayer Showcase continues to take a look at Saturn Bomberman by covering our favorite stages, gimmicks, exploit the dinosaurs and try to figure out what the kick power up looks like. The round table discussion features my friends Chance, Krys, Randy and Chelsea. (Who didn’t play with us but has actually played the game before!) We talk about the simple wide stage. What are your favorite levels or gimmicks from the game? Do the dinosaurs break the game for you or your friends? Sound off in the comments section.

Sonic Boom has certainly been a source of contention from many fans of the franchise, both old and new. Presented as a new branch of the Sonic series primarily led by the people at SEGA of America, it’s hard to argue the experiment has won any favors from longtime fans. While the TV show has been performing well, the 3DS game didn’t turn into anything more than a mediocre platformer. All that’s left to talk about is the Wii U game.

Unfortunately, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is the weakest element in the Boom bandwagon. The title shows off way too many glaring issues that seem as if the developers were rushing to get the game out the door in time for the TV show’s premiere, and boy, we got stuck with another unfortunate misstep for the blue blur. Plagued with infinite jump glitches, weird collision bugs, opportunities to soft lock the game and some of the worst special effects seen in the CryEngine…wait, the CryEngine 3? The same one powering performance hungry games such as the Crysis series? Indeed, the same one, only now the game is running poorly optimized for the Wii U and has some of the most awkward special effects in a modern 3D game.

I don’t doubt that the engine could work well for Sonic providing an open world environment, but that kind of experience is not delivered well here. Now, some of you arm chair experts are probably sitting there saying the game is terrible due to Sonic losing his speed, turning the game into a glorified beat-em up and changing the iconic style of the character, the plot and all the things that make Sonic work. But that couldn’t be further from the point on why exactly this game is bad.

Come one, come all for a Grand Prix of hijinks with the Sonic and Sega Retro crew playing Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 next Friday August the 3rd, 5PM Central. In addition the event will be live streamed with commentary from Retro staff, talking about the game, the upcoming sequel and more. Streaming and further details will be available soon.

To join in, send a friend request now to VidyaRetro on either Xbox Live or Sony Entertainment Network. Once 5PM Central rolls around, be sure to start the game and await an invite.

Daytona USA is making it’s first lap on Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade this week. If you’re a bad enough mother of a driver, chances are you’ve already snagged yourself a copy of the game. If you’re just plain bad at Daytona, then do yourself a favor by checking out these videos of You Tube user Trojan X who was able to beat the AI on the highest difficulty in all three tracks using manual transmission while keeping up top speed. Be sure to watch all three videos to get an idea on how to tackle the three courses.

The technique that’s prominent in these videos is the Gear Drift. When tacking the tightest corners, turn early, shift into second, while turning along the curve, shift into third then gradually correct your steering as you approach the straight, and resume gaining speed. Don’t hit the brakes, otherwise you’ll find yourself sliding all over the place! Lastly, be sure to memorize each track. Play offline for some practice sessions before taking on other opponents.

I know we all love Sonic the Hedgehog. But sometimes we need a different kind of fast paced frantic fun-fest. Although some of SEGA’s modern Sonic offerings haven’t quite fit the bill, Valve created a great multiplayer shooter a few years back called Team Fortress 2 that does a great job of filling our poor, empty, violated gap. Not too long ago, the Sonic Retro Steam group had a server of its own to call home, but it eventually died out when I could no longer afford to keep it running. This is a shame since according to the Sonic Retro Steam group stats, members play TF2 at least half of the time they spend on Steam! But now I have a better job and better shopping skills! What that means is we now have ourselves a new server to play TF2 on when we just need a break from break-neck speeds.

Curious what kind flavor of TF2 we play with? Well this isn’t a competitive server. It’s actually pretty customized with several mods and fun tweaks. Truth be told, Retro TF2 isn’t the server you want to join for a serious game. For now though, we still have a little bit of setup work to do. So none of our customizations are really available. Although we have setup administrative functions and the server is up and running. So if you’re feeling a little bored and want to shoot up a few friends, check out the details for joining below!